Movie Reviews

Bodies Bodies Bodies

The previews for Bodies Bodies Bodies lead you to believe that it is a horror flick with a mad slasher on the loose. It is not. BBB is a satirical murder mystery that goofs on Generation Z.

Lesbian couple Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) and Bee (Maria Bakalova) are going to a hurricane party at the house of Sophie's rich 20-something best friend David (Pete Davidson). Because most of the guests are friends of Sophie or David, Bee feels like the odd one out. It’s something that everyone can all relate to—being at a party with total strangers, at one time or another.

During the storm, they all decide to play a game, Bodies Bodies Bodies, where everyone gets a slip of paper, and the person who gets the sheet with an “X” written on it is the “killer,” but only that person knows. The lights are then turned out, and if you get touched across the back, then you are dead. When the lights are put back on, the rest of the group tries to figure out who among them is the “killer.” Of course, someone really turns up dead, and then the fake friendships and backstabbing come out into the open.

One of the problems with director Halina Reijn's film is that most of the characters are unlikable and annoying, so you kind of hope they die. It makes it difficult to spend an entire film with these types of people; however, screenwriter Sarah DeLappe does give the film clever and amusing lines such as, “David's dad can be a dick, but his politics check out,” or “They're not as nihilistic as they look on the internet.” Bakalova plays the character the audience will gravitate towards, and she's the main reason the film works as well as it does. You will remember Bakalova from her fearless and hilarious performance as the wild child in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020).

BBB is nowhere near as hysterical as the classic Gen X dark comedy Heathers (1989), but it does have its moments. For most of its 94-minute running time, Bodies Bodies Bodies is a fairly efficient whodunnit with good performances, creepy atmosphere (inside a dark house during a rainstorm), droll mockery of Gen Z, and a weird but effective music score by Disasterpeace.

The ending of the movie, however, is a cheat. Yes, the final revelation was funny, but it made the entire affair come off as a shaggy-dog story. That may tick off some audiences. —David Vicari

Summering

In the new James Ponsoldt’s (director/co-writer) film Summering, four girls, Daisy (Lia Barnett), Lola (Sanai Victoria), Dina (Madalen Mills), and Mari (Eden Grace Redfield), are spending their last week of summer vacation together before middle school. While hanging out in a forest, however, that endeavor is interrupted when they come across a dead body.

There are definite echoes to Stand By Me, but that film involved the quest to find the body so the boys could get their names in the papers. Here, the girls’ motivations for not calling the police or the hospital when they find the body are unconvincing. It absolutely feels like a plot device.

Summering’s strengths come from the moments where the characters are just talking to each other, whether it’s the girls or their mothers. One of the girls mentions she was always proud to be the oldest of the group, but she now realizes being old isn’t that great. One of the moms talks about how adults often forget to go out and make new friends as they reach middleage. These moments

feel authentic.

The problem is that the dead body plot keeps intruding, and every time it does, the film feels stilted and unconvincing. Summering might have worked better if Ponsoldt (who has made a couple of very fine films in The Spectacular Now and The End of the Tour) had just let it be a hangout film. As is, it ends up being a mixed bag –Fritz Esker

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